It was the first preseason game, so we should put very little weight on this one. Still, you'd have hoped for a little better with a lot of your top back end players in the lineup, but the team just lacked possession in the preseason opener.

Joseph had a goal and was -1 in 15:17 with 3 shots and 2 hits in 15:17.

Alexei Lipanov had 1 shot and was 30% on 10 draws in 9:34. I kind of expect him to get a copy of the home game and to be returned to junior expeditiously, but we'll see.

Alexander Volkov had 1 shot and 1 hit in 18:40 in premier minutes with the top liners.

Gabriel Fortier was -1 with 2 penalty minutes and 2 hits in 13:16. I'd expect he also goes the same route back to junior sooner rather than later, although he got a good amount of minutes relative to more established prospects tonight.